Google Puts The Nexus 4 Back On Sale In UK, France And Spain [Update: Now Also In Australia, Sold Out In France And Spain]

Google yesterday started to offer the Nexus 4 once again in the Google Play stores in the U.S., Canada and Germany, and today it’s started to roll it out to the rest of the markets where it quickly went out of stock last year. Users can now order the devices in the UK, France, Spain and Australia, with shipping times of around 1-2 weeks, although more exact times might be given at checkout. [Australia is not live yet, we’ve been told.]

Update: And now the Nexus 4 is on sale in Australia, and Google has confirmed to us that the Nexus 4 has already sold out in France and Spain. In fact our readers below noted that the “sold out” sign was put up within about an hour of the phones going on sale.

(Note: those links will only appear local links in their respective markets; they will otherwise appear with stock information for whichever market where you are viewing them.)

Google’s Nexus 4 device, made by LG, is a Jellybean-based Android phone loaded with functionality (but no official LTE support yet) at a competition-beating price of $299.

When the device first went on sale in November, stock sold out in lightning speed. In January, LG engaged in a little mild mudslinging, noting that Google had massively underestimated demand for the device, with the amount of people in one market, the UK, at ten times the level of availability. Indeed, Google, TechCrunch understands from sources, had modelled its numbering based on sales of previous Nexus devices.

But with Android take up showing no signs of slowing down, and smartphones becoming ever more mainstream, it looks like the “Kindle Fire” effect, of offering a device quite compatible on specs and services but very competitive on price, was a recipe for rapid sales.

This week, Google gradually turned on availability across different markets possibly for a double purpose: the first is that it means it will be able to better handle an influx of orders and manage inventory accordingly.